Blog Exercises: Curing Uncategorized Fever

We’ve all seen it. I call it Uncategorized Fever. By default, any post not categorized in WordPress is assigned to the Uncategorized category.

The Uncategorized category appears in your Categories and Tags list or clouds. In tag clouds, the larger the word, the more posts with that tag.

If Uncategorized is clearly visible in these lists, what message does that send?

If you are uncategorized with your blog, it’s time to clean up your categorizes and start uncategorizing yourself.

Your Blog Exercises today is to clean out all those uncategorized posts from your site. Put them back where they belong in a category.

If the post is beyond categorization, consider deleting it. If it really is uncategorizable, get rid of it.

When you are done and the posts in the Uncategorized category are gone, it’s time to do away with it completely. The following are instructions for removing a category in WordPress. Check with your publishing platform instructions for their method.

Go to Settings > Writing in the WordPress Administration Panels.

Go to Default Post Category.

From the drop down menu, select the category you wish to be set as the new default.

Click Save Changes.

Go to Posts > Categories.

Hover over the Uncategorized category and choose Delete. This is permanent so choose carefully.

When you publish a post without a category, it will automatically be categorized by the default category.

If a post is beyond categorization, it’s time to really rethink about it. Is it what you really want on your site? Does it serve your readers? It isn’t an absolute but there is some merit in cleaning out the crud when you come across it. Miscellaneous content is fine, but always remember whom you serve. If your site is for you, and you don’t care about your readers or building a reputation in this field, and you can’t find a way to connect it, then may it isn’t appropriate there.

This is why I have several sites. While Lorelle on WordPress and Lorelle Teaches are dedicated to educational and technical articles, Lorelle Teaches is designed to support my workshops and classes, not my general audience. I write differently, serving each audience independently.

The same applies with Blog Your Passion and The Tech Nag. On the latter, I can bitch and whine about all things tech whether or not it relates to WordPress and blogging. I certainly couldn’t publish Amazon Instant Video Prime Nightmares on Lorelle on WordPress. Not appropriate.

It’s your site, it’s up to you. If a post won’t fit within your categories, it’s a sign. It’s up to you to pay attention to it.

You’re welcome; thanks for the great answer! You’ve provided good confirmation about having multiple blogs which are more specific in their scope and content. Makes a lot of sense…and not just for SEO related factors. Cheers

I am amazed at how many countries have accessed my blog in 16 months–over 60 countries. I always write humor, and I use weird and catchy titles, such as “Child Care Lessons from an Egg in a Basket to a Fake Baby in the Freezer” or “It’s a Bird. It’s a Plane. It’s a Band Director.”